TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — The chief of a top trans-Atlantic security grouping visited Belarus on Tuesday for the first time in seven years as the country’s authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has sought to normalize ties with the West.

Feridun Sinirlioglu, the secretary-general of the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, visited Belarus to attend an international security conference and met with Lukashenko.

Sinirlioglu’s visit to Belarus marks the first such trip by the OSCE’s chief since 2019. Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has faced Western isolation and sanctions for years.

Speaking at the start of his meeting with Lukashenko, Sinirlioglu noted Belarus’ role in helping organize exchanges of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine.

The Belarusian leader said that he “highly appreciates” Sinirlioglu’s visit, but he also criticized the OSCE for what he described as its purported pro-Western stance and unfair criticism of elections in Belarus and Russia.

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